The X-Files - Die Hand Die Verletzt

Mulder and Scully are called to investigate the ritualistic murder of a teenager using an occult text popularized by their parents and town adults as a serious worship doctrine. A town in New Hampshire supposedly worships Satan, with faculty saying prayers after discussing staff school meeting issues! They, in unison, chant to their Lords of Darkness. Introducing their teenage kids to their worship turns out to not be such a good idea. After Mulder and Scully arrive to participate in the murder investigation of the teenage boy, a new sub takes the place of the science teacher who is at home with flesh-eating bacteria. Her name is Mrs. Paddock (Susan Blommaert; she is damn creepy), and she could very well be an evil conjured by the kids during a ritual that they are toying around with. Paddock conducts her own rituals, without much attention from the other faculty members, which includes having a student slit her own wrists after telling Mulder and Scully her father (principal Ausbury played by Dan Butler) had abused her and killed her 8 year old sister and commanding an anaconda snake to swallow a handcuffed Ausbury (by Mulder, putting him under arrest for his involvement in the occult activity leading to the teenager’s murder) in his cellar. Mulder and Scully experience some “oddities” while in Milford. Raining frogs, water going down the drain counter-clockwise, “something in the air not right”, the faculty acting strangely paranoic, occult shenanigans, the acid-bones of Ausbury, claims of a student being raped repeatedly and having sacrificed babies; the FBI agents, at first, believe the sheriff’s occult claims are poppycock but enough time spent in Milford starts to have them questioning what the fuck is going on.

Scully acknowledges that Milford produces some strange vibes, but her skeptical hat remains firmly on her head. She has a moment in the science classroom (after Ausbury’s daughter has the hallucination involving a pig for dissection with a heart that beats and pops its head up at her!) where she talks to Mulder about the coincidences of Paddock arriving with the school not remembering hiring her and the teacher she replaces having the disease. Scully reins herself in, even giving Mulder a scientific explanation on the falling frogs (tornadic activity caught the frogs and dropped them once it dissipated). She wouldn't allow herself to give in to the same supposed hysteria of those in Milford. Mulder can't shake the unease of Milford, though.

Paddock, as written, brings about the killing and manipulation through deep meditation, a lit candle, darkened eyes, an intense grunting sound, severe concentration, and objects owned or in the possession of those she needs out of the way or dead. Whether she needs Mulder away from Aubury so she can send a snake out to swallow him whole by imitating Scully’s voice in a phone call, force a teenage girl to slit her wrists against her will, or get rid of the faculty (who didn’t worship the dark master with any real gusto) by having the use of a shotgun commit a murder-suicide by “enchanting” the student counselor; Paddock seems to be tying up loose ends. Mulder and Scully, fortunate for them, aren’t a threat to her. They just happen to be caught up in the middle of it all. They do nearly perish when the remaining crazed faculty decides to do away with them, with only Paddock interfering on their behalf…to Paddock their lackadaisical worship and insincere, lazy practice of Satanism could no longer be tolerated. And the joke of the devil worshippers in how they fail to practice what they believe can be attached to any number of religions…sometimes those involved can’t quite devote or dedicate completely to them.

The unsettling "recollections" by the daughter of Aubury to Scully and Mulder is rather lengthy and atypical of the show. For this teenage girl to bare such horror, Scully and Mulder, even if they might have been skeptical of specifics in her testimony, are still quite empathetic and attentive to her. And it is convincingly presented, as if quite real to her. While most of the episode is a balance of surreal and satire, this scene brings a serious tone as Mulder and Scully follow up on her accusations.